FEMA Disaster Grants Open to Corruption

Gov. Dan Malloy of Connecticut called presidential candidate Ron Paul an idiot last Thursday while answering a loaded question on CNN, responding to Congressman Paul's concern about a bankrupted FEMA.

This government agency, founded in 1978, now doles out money to victims of natural disasters. Of course, Malloy is salivating over that well-earned money coming his way. His insult to Paul must reflect the high anxiety involved. It must be very stressful to have this whole notion questioned, right when you've won the lottery.

Privately, Ron Paul staffers tell the story of a constituent who called his
office asking for relief from FEMA. It seems they had draped his house with a tarp because they thought it had a leaky roof. It turned out that FEMA had made a mistake.

The damaged roof belonged to a neighbor's house. The constituent had
called FEMA, asking for permission to transfer the tarp to the other home. "No way," an official from FEMA ordered, "If you touch that tarp you will be arrested."

Huh? Congressman Paul's constituent was a bit perplexed. Had he lost his house? Was it now the government's house?

Actually, in his now-famous Fox News Sunday interview, Ron Paul expressed compassion for the victims of Hurricane Irene and only then brought up the very real question of how FEMA, now on the verge of bankruptcy, should function.

Paul told a tale of corruption. How money is awarded to contractors without bids. Paul suggested that American pull in a little bit from it's overseas empire and bring some of the money home to help those in need, like the victims of the hurricane. He said the national guard should be home helping in a crisis like this, that this was more of its role than the endless wars overseas. CNN and Malloy missed that.

Here are some numbers to give you a little perspective. Hurricane Irene is the most expensive natural disaster in American history, topping $20 billion. Since 2000, America has given almost that much in military and humanitarian aid to Pakistan. This is the country that harbored Osama bin Laden. And we are still giving it money.

Meanwhile, we spent $1 trillion on the war in Iraq, where we soon learned that there were no weapons of mass destruction, nor al-Qaida.

That means that the entire bill for Hurricane Irene cost less than 2 percent of the war in Iraq. And what did we get for the war in Iraq? Well, al-Qaida which we thought was there, has now finally arrived. I suppose that is worth something.

The Christian church, which flourished as a protected minority under Saddam Hussein, has been killed off or driven out. There is now Shariah law and the nation has tilted to Iran. Once its bitterest enemy, Iran is now its new found friend.

We now know, thanks to a partial audit, that in 2008 alone, the Federal Reserve spent $16 trillion to help shore up the American economy. About $3 trillion went to other countries. Billions went to selected
corporations. Can you spell corruption? This money, spent in 2008 alone, is more than the entire national debt, which is now topping $14 trillion.

So again, who is the idiot that raised the question about spending money? Who cares? We can always make more little digits. Right? Malloy can relax. The rest of the country will continue to obsorb these pay days doled out by elitist politicians and often to their elitist cronies.

The wars will be financed, the disaster funds replenished, and we will solve the jobs problem by just having the government hire everyone.

Let's see, I would like to be paid $100,000 a year to enforce tarp placement on roofs with suspected leaks. And God help the citizen
who touches my tarps.

Doug Wead is a New York Times best-selling author and a former adviser to two American presidents. He is senior adviser to the Ron Paul presidential campaign.

Gov. Dan Malloy of Connecticut called presidential candidate Ron Paul an idiot last Thursday while answering a loaded question on CNN, responding to Congressman Paul's concern about a bankrupted FEMA.
This government agency, founded in 1978, now doles out money to victims...